The timing of vaccination can influence immune protection, yet the molecular processes translating time of day into long-term immunity remain poorly understood. This project explores how circadian physiology shapes early immune activation and downstream responses after vaccination in humans and mice.

Ultraviolet light triggers immune activation and disease flares in lupus, yet exposure occurs within a circadian context. The timing of UV exposure may determine the severity of local tissue injury and systemic immune responses.

Critical illness and mechanical ventilation disturb circadian rhythms, contributing to inflammation and poor outcomes. This project examines how central and peripheral clocks and nuclear receptor signaling influence immune regulation and lung injury.

Internal circadian desynchronization, common in shift work, jetlag, and clinical care, alters immune regulation. This project explores how cellular clock synchrony can be quantified and how their desynchrony affects inflammatory programs.

Multiple sclerosis features disturbances in sleep, metabolism, and immune activity across the circadian cycle, which may actively contribute to disease activity. This project investigates how these rhythms influence disease progression and whether strengthening them can be therapeutically beneficial.

A coordinated circadian-epigenetic network maintains liver metabolic homeostasis. Disruption of circadian rhythms or epigenetic regulation alters metabolism and inflammation, contributing to steatohepatitis. This project explores their interaction.

Adolescence is a critical period for establishing lifelong metabolic set points. Hormonal changes shift chronotype later, interacting with circadian regulation to influence metabolism. This project investigates puberty-related circadian dynamics in humans and mice and explores interventions to restore alignment.

MASLD is prevalent and a major risk factor for cirrhosis and liver cancer. Exercise is effective but limited by compliance. This project investigates how exercise timing interacts with hepatocyte circadian clocks to affect metabolism and MASLD progression.

Circadian rhythms are often disrupted in critically ill patients, worsening outcomes. Non-invasive detection and normalization in the ICU are not yet implemented. This project integrates high-resolution patient data with dynamic light therapy to restore circadian rhythms.

AD is preceded by disrupted circadian rhythms and immune dysfunction. Innate immune cells possess functional clocks, but how circadian disruption in these cells contributes to AD progression is unclear.

Depression and anxiety are linked to circadian disruption, yet temporal dynamics remain poorly understood. This project uses actigraphy, smartphones, and apps to track circadian patterns and mood over time, enabling large-scale assessment and intervention.

Adolescent depression is linked to cognitive biases and circadian rhythm disruption. How these rhythms influence learning and mood is unclear. This project investigates their effect on socio-emotional learning biases and tests interventions to stabilize rhythms.

Mood symptoms vary throughout the day, yet mechanisms linking circadian rhythms, stress, and mood regulation remain poorly understood. This project investigates how circadian clocks interact with glutamatergic signaling and glucocorticoids to regulate mood and treatment efficacy.

This consortium relies on standardized methods, high-quality biospecimens, and computational tools to enable circadian medicine research. This service project provides molecular biomarker assays, standardized cohorts, multi-omics datasets, and bioinformatics support for the analysis of high-dimensional circadian data. Its resources and expertise are used across the consortium, supporting the discovery of circadian principles and facilitating personalized interventions.

Efficient translation of circadian medicine requires integrated management of preclinical and clinical data across multiple sites and projects. This service project establishes a secure platform for data collection, integration, sharing, and collaboration, alongside tools for research data management, open science, and compliance with data protection regulations. By providing robust infrastructure and support, it enables smooth communication, project coordination, and effective use of complex longitudinal and time-series datasets throughout the consortium.